1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to steam cookers.
2. Description of the Related Art
Steam cookers are used in commercial food service applications to quickly heat and/or cook food. In order to heat and/or cook food in a steam cooker, water is heated until it changes phase to become steam. The steam is then circulated through the cooker using a fan or other circulation mechanism to allow the steam to contact the food and increase the temperature of the food. Additionally, a vacuum pump may be used to remove air from the cooking chamber of the steam cooker. By removing air from the cooking chamber, the boiling point of the water within the steam cooker is depressed, allowing the water to be converted to steam at a lower temperature and causing the food within the steam cooker to be heated more rapidly.
While prior art steam cooker designs are effective, achieving a high level of pan-to-pan uniformity within the cooking chamber, i.e., ensuring that each pan of food within the cooking chamber is heated to substantially the same temperature, may be difficult. As a result, when the cooking chamber is loaded with pans of food that are to be cooked, some of the pans may not reach the desired cooking temperature as quickly as other pans. In order to heat all of the pans to the desired cooking temperature, the pans that reach the cooking temperature first may have to be overheated, i.e., may have to be heated to a temperature in excess of the desired cooking temperature resulting in over cooked food. Further, due to the constant operation of a mechanism to circulate the steam within the cooking chamber, a constant noise may be generated by the steam cooker.